Xbox Mods without a Mod Chip

[MDE]

What kinds of mods can I do without a mod chip that allow me to still play on Xbox Live? I've already replaced the standard IDE cable with an ATA-133 cable which helped load times a bit.

 

[wfn]

swapping a stock cable for a high density 80 conductor cable is not going to do anything sice the ide controller in your xbox is an ata/33 udma mode 2.

- you can replace your dvd-rom with a samsung drive which is supposedly more compatible with cd-r media and has a faster seek time.

- if you're really hardcore you can swap the cpu and put a tualatin p3 in there.

- you can add bling by modding the case or adding fluorescent thingies to it.

- you can make a window in the top cover and the dvd-rom drive so you can see it spin

and many many more.. you can get some ideas here http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=103427

but honestly? i would just buy wireless controllers and a wireles G adapter and be done with it.

 

[Lmronby]

By mods do you mean hack the hdd or play backups? If that is what you are lookin for you can't accomplish without a mod chip. You could flash your TSOP (Xbox bios) that would allow for the above options but there is no way to get on XBL. Some mod chips have an ON/OFF option that would allow. Hope that helps.

Pat

 

[coejus]

If you install a different hard disk, whether or not you use a mod chip (I don't have an XBox, so I don't know), you still won't be able to play XBox Live. Microsoft has, or so I've read, started running checks where they compare the serial number of your hard disk with the serial number of the disk that was installed by the factory.

 

[KoolDrew]

You could softmod it and play games for the HD.

 

[madthumbs]

With softmodding, you're likely to run into problems with dashboard and live updates. With tsop flashing, you're gonna need a v1-1.1 xbox that has a 1mb bios that you can split into 4. You can then run switches to switch between the 4 bios's (one being original). With the hdd upgrade (hard to do with a softmod box) you can run a switch between stock hdd and "backup games" hdd or I "think" you can just lock the new hdd with the old ones lock code. Any of these things is gonna take much more research than you're gonna find on this site. I suggest you look to xbox-scene.com if you plan to pursue any of these. Personally, I don't think xbox live is worth not having a fully modded xbox for. There are services like kai that allow you to play system link games online for free.

-Yes the ata133 cable was a myth, but a higher quality cable could make a small difference.

-In addition to upgrading the cpu, you could upgrade the ram which would only benefit running linux, development software, or other non-official software on it.